A Picture Paints a Thousand Words
In an increasingly electronic world I often wonder why the UK has such a massive card market, worth a whopping £1.7Bn! Is it that our repressed nature makes it easier to send a card rather than verbalise the message?
If a picture paints a thousand words then the card market is an important outlet for any artist. In the past I have made my own art cards and whilst it was fun it was also intensely time consuming, so this week I have been spending time with the printer and developing a series of cards which will be launched at my forthcoming Snape Exhibition. I can't wait to see the printed cards - here is a draft ... and see below for some interesting factoids on the UK card market.
Interesting Facts About the Greeting Card Industry
The greeting card industry is directly and indirectly responsible for the jobs of 100,000 people in the UK including: publishers; artists, photographers and image suppliers; verse and prose writers; printers; paper and board companies; envelope and cello wrap suppliers; specialist finishers; warehousing and distribution companies; trade fair organisers and retailers.
No other country has such a tradition of card sending or card display in the home - the sending and receiving of cards is an important part of our culture.
We buy more cards per person than any other nation - 33 each a year.
But the industry's rule of thumb is that 85% of all cards are bought by women.
The UK card industry is acknowledged to be ten years ahead of the rest of the world in terms of design.
Greeting cards are stocked in more types of outlet than any other product – with one in six retailers stocking greeting cards.
There are over a thousand publishers in the UK, most of which are small businesses with fewer than five employees. Out of the 450 plus members of the GCA over 350 are small/micro businesses.
Charities estimate that £50m is raised for good causes through the sales of charity Christmas cards each year.
